Cruising Gallows Lane

They really didn't need the sprinklers and the firehoses on the course Sunday at the Litchfield Hills Road Race. One of the leaders, Samuel Karanja, didn't take any water during the 7.04-mile race.

The weather was unusual for the second Sunday in June. It was cool and cloudy. It was course record weather.

But no course records fell Sunday. The hill in the last mile at Gallows Lane did the leaders in.

"The last mile was very tough," said David Njuguna of Kenya, who won in 33:52 - 31 seconds off the record set by Godfrey Kiprotich in 1997. "We were trying to break the course record, but we didn't make it."

"Because of the hill, that's why I was No.2," said Karanja, Njuguna's training partner from Kenya who finished 5 seconds back. "[Gallows Lane] is the toughest hill."

There were 1,208 finishers in the 27th annual race. Deeja Youngquist of Albuquerque, N.M., won the women's division in her first try, in 39:54. The women's finish was close. The top five finished within a minute of one another.

Eddy Hellebuyck, the 1994 and 1995 winner who finished 12th Sunday (36:25), sent the 2000 men's winner, Janko Bensa, to the race. This year, he brought Youngquist. Hellebuyck helps her train, and his wife, Shawn, is her agent.

"I loved it," Youngquist said. "The weather was perfect, and the hills were great. I love hills."

Njuguna ran the fifth-fastest time ever on the course - just behind Hellebuyck's 33:46 winning time in 1994. He ran with Karanja for most of the race but took the lead for good right before the Gallows Lane hill.

"I know I am very strong on hills," Njuguna said. "I tried to break [away] before the hill, and I pushed hard."

It was his fourth Litchfield race, Karanja's first. It was the third time the two have raced each other. Njuguna has beaten Karanja, who trains with him in Canada, each time.

Hellebuyck, who finished 10th in the Boston Marathon, got the biggest ovation while running to the finish line. He was the first masters runner and the first American, running the race after a two-year absence.

He ran 71/2 miles Saturday at the Hospital Hill Run, a half-marathon in Kansas City, Mo., before dropping out. Later, he flew to Connecticut.

"Right from the start, I was never in that race," Hellebuyck said. "I was in 22nd, and this was an American championship. There wasn't one Kenyan in the race. That wasn't very good.

"I was thinking about this race. I didn't want to be suffering. I didn't feel too good at the start, but the crowd kept me going today."